New from Shibui.

Posted by Julia on August 28, 2014

The newest colors and patterns from Shibui have arrived at the shop!

Their newest colorways are “Blueprint,” “Fog,” “Pollen,” and “Trail,” and we now have them in Cima, Pebble, and Silk Cloud.

We also got a new shade in Linen, a yarn that has been warmly embraced by knitters and crocheters alike since we first got it back in May.

We’re also excited to have two new pattern collections from Shibui, their Fall/Winter 2014 Mix Collection and the Monochrome Collection. The Mix patterns combine multiple Shibui yarns to create unique color and fiber blends.

I’m particularly excited about a few of the Monochrome patterns, and even more excited to announce that we’re hosting a Shibui Monochrome Trunk Show from October 1st – 14th!

Intrigued by Shibui yarns? Sign up for our upcoming Shibui Mix Party to sample five Shibui yarns. It’s a great opportunity to swatch and experiment with yarn combinations before you invest in a project’s worth of yarn. Come by the shop to peruse the latest patterns and check out the new colors, too. See you there!

Fibre Company Trunk Show: Summer Sweaters.

Posted by Julia on June 29, 2014

We’re so excited to announce that we’ve just received a Trunk Show featuring Fibre Company yarns and patterns. The Summer Sweater collection will be on display here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop until July 20th, and we have all the yarns and patterns to make these garments your own!

The Summer Sweater collection consists of six garments knit in Fibre Company’s most warm-weather-friendly yarns, Savannah and Meadow. Each yarn is composed of both plant and animal fibers, giving the finished fabric a nice blend of elasticity and drape.

Savannah is a sport weight mix of wool, cotton, linen, and soya, and Meadow is a blend of merino, llama, linen, and silk spun into a lace/fingering weight yarn.

We have shawls made in each one of these yarns, but they are just as well suited to sweater-making, and it’s a treat to see that in person. Trunk shows like these are a unique opportunity to touch and try on for size before you cast on for a project.

“Sonora” is my favorite, a simple tee with cap sleeves that I’m sure I’d wear all the time. This collection offers a range of tees and tanks, with different color and texture patterns making each one unique.

Come by the shop before July 20th to admire the Summer Sweaters Trunk Show, try them on for size, and plan one for yourself!

Back in stock: Malabrigo Lace.

Posted by Julia on June 25, 2014

The Malabrigo booth is always a must-see at TNNA, and this year, we went there to restock. We filled in some shades of Arroyo we were missing, and picked out a new palette in Lace, our supply having dwindled.

Malabrigo Lace is a single-ply merino, soft as can be, and boasts an impressive 470 yards on each 50 gram hank. That’s enough for a scarf, cowl, or shawlette; just two or three more skeins and you’ve enough to knit Hannah Fettig’s “Wispy Cardi.”

Here at the shop, we have a swatch of Malabrigo Lace, the start of Liz Abinante’s “Saroyan,” a popular free pattern for a triangular stockinette scarf with a leaf edging. This little bit of fabric gives a good sense of how Malabrigo Lace knits up. Come by the shop to take a closer look, and pick up a few skeins for yourself!

Still playing with Shibui.

Posted by Julia on May 15, 2014

I have many loves when it comes to yarn and knitting, but right now, Shibui is at the forefront. Each time new colors come in to the shop, I find myself pairing and grouping them again. With that in mind, indulge me in a few more color-combinations for Shibui projects–I can’t help myself.

Several of you have made or are making the “Gradient” cowl, a free pattern from Shibui which is worked with three strands of Silk Cloud held together. Periodically, one of those three strands is switched out for a different color, which makes a gentle transition from one color to the next–four colors in all. It’s easy to lose oneself on Ravelry looking at different “Gradient” cowls in their many colors…here are even more that I’d love to see made up.

With 21 shades of Silk Cloud so far, we have plenty to choose from. What four colors would you use for a “Gradient” cowl?

We also got new colors in Cima, a springy lace weight blend of alpaca and merino. I put these pairings together with two Shibui cowls in mind–“Kinetic” and “Mix No. 23.” The first has you blending the two colors for an ombre effect, and the second sets the two shades against one another in a bold double-knit motif.

We’re up to 20 shades in Cima now; come by the shop to play with them yourself, and consider Shibui’s yarns and patterns as you’re planning your next project!

New from Shibui.

Posted by Julia on March 10, 2014

Shibui has just released their Spring/Summer 2014 pattern collection, six new Mix patterns that combine Shibui yarns two or three strands at a time to make unique fiber blends. We’re also excited to announce that in April, we’ll host a trunk show featuring these very garments. We can’t wait to see them in person!

“Mix No. 25” is a long, lightweight cardigan, knit with two strands of Shibui Pebble held together throughout–the same yarn combination used to make the “Cliff” hat that we have on display here at the shop. The handsome “Mix No. 26” scarf is also knit with Pebble, two shades in a chevron colorwork pattern. We got a few new shades of Pebble in this past week, making it even more fun to come up with “Mix No. 26” color combinations.

I find “Mix No. 29” perhaps the most tempting of the bunch, in part because I’ve had my double-knit “Mix No. 23” cowl wrapped around my neck all winter, and find another Shibui cowl hard to resist.

“Mix No. 29” is knit with the springy Cima and tweedy Pebble held together, a combination that makes a light and lovely fabric. It can be hard to imagine how two different yarns will behave when knit together, which is why we have swatches in each possible combination of the three Shibui yarns we currently carry. Look for a stack of them in the Shibui Mix Box, where you’ll also find the Shibui lookbooks, color-cards, and pattern binder.

Another way to take the guesswork out of yarn-combining is to swatch these yarns yourself before you buy them, which is exactly what happens at a Shibui Mix Party. We had one here at HYS in January, where knitters and crocheters sampled Cima, Pebble, and Silk Cloud. I’m delighted to announce that we’ve got another Shibui Mix Party on the schedule, and this time, we’re offering samples of all nine Shibui yarns! Because of our small space, we’re limiting this special event to 15 participants, so sign up now if you’d like to attend!

Come by the shop to see the latest from Shibui and plan your next project. (Maybe Stephen West’s new “Pebble Parallelograms,” a colorful scarf knit in five shades of Pebble and one of Silk Cloud, all of which are in stock at the shop right now, and pictured above? Just sayin’.) See you there!

New colors in Meadow.

Posted by Julia on February 14, 2014

Fibre Company’s newest yarn, Meadow, has been catching the attention of knitters and crocheters at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop since we unpacked our first box of the stuff. We admired finished garments made in Meadow at the Allium Collection trunk show, and sampled Meadow ourselves at the Fibre Company yarn tasting, planning projects for this unique lace weight yarn all the while. I’m happy to report that the Fibre Company has created three new colors of Meadow: a bright teal, a dark brown, and a pale, greyish lavender.

Meadow is an unusual yarn, somewhere in between a lace weight and a light fingering weight, a soft and tweedy blend of 40% merino wool, 25% baby llama, 20% silk, and 15% linen. It knits up comfortably on a wide range of needle sizes, as well-suited to lightweight sweaters as it is to lace shawls. These three new shades fit right into the existing Meadow color palette, its moody, muted shades punctuated by a few sunny brights.

Look for Meadow in a basket near the lace and fingering weight yarns, and consider it for your next project. Come by and see our other Fibre Company yarns, too: Savannah, Acadia, and Canopy Worsted. See you at the shop!

New colors from Shibui.

Posted by Julia on January 30, 2014

Our yarn tastings often result in mammoth orders from whatever yarn company we’ve just sampled. In part this is because we take special orders from yarn tasting attendees, but it’s also because Anne and I have a hard time resisting the urge to get a few new colors in these lovable yarns. It was no different with our recent Shibui Mix Party, and the result is new colors in all three Shibui yarns we currently carry–springy Cima, fuzzy Silk Cloud, and tweedy Pebble.

Shibui yarns are designed to be held two or three strands at a time to create unique fiber blends, and because of that, they dye all their yarn bases in matching colorways for easy mixing. There’s not an exact match for every single color in every single yarn, but they get pretty close. The use of two similar-but-not-identical colors held together also makes for an interesting effect, as I’ve learned in my recently-completed Carpino sweater.

I held Shibui Silk Cloud and Isager Highland together in the colors “Bordeaux” and “Wine,” respectively. A good match in name and in hue. When you look at the finished fabric up close, you can see the difference between the two yarns, but from a distance, they blend into a cohesive burgundy shade.

These two new colorways of Pebble give knitters a few more options when choosing colors for the Cliff Hat. We now carry 12 shades of this tweedy cashmere/silk/wool blend.

Amy is teaching an upcoming class on the Cliff hat, a nice small project for learning colorwork; read more about it and sign up on our Classes page!

We’re so pleased to see our selection of Shibui colorways growing like this. Come by the shop to see them for yourself, and to plan a project using Shibui yarns!

New Isager patterns.

Posted by Julia on December 17, 2013

By now, you probably know how we feel about Isager yarns and patterns. We’ve offered classes on Marianne and Helga Isager’s designs, hosted Isager trunk shows, and knit with those yarns and patterns ourselves, again and again. So it will come as no surprise that we’re delighted to share some new Isager patterns with you, meaning patterns designed by Marianne Isager as well as patterns by other designers for Isager yarns.

The “Trellis Wimple” is a generous openwork cowl that can be worn a few different ways. It’s worked on a range of needle sizes to create gentle shaping, and made with two strands of Isager yarn held together throughout: the lace weight Spinni (Wool 1) and the fingering weight Alpaca 2. Use coordinating colors for a solid-looking garment, or try slightly different shades for a marled look.

The “Barclay Scarf” uses three shades of Alpaca 2, which are striped in a texture pattern for a nice effect.

Marianne Isager’s “Diamanten” shawl calls for Spinni (Wool 1) held together with a silk/mohair blend; Shibui Silk Cloud comes to mind. The Isager and Shibui color palettes each have their own character, but there is certainly overlap enough to make some beautiful combinations.

Speaking of Shibui, Pebble or Isager Tvinni would both be a perfect fit for “Vingefang,” a cardigan pattern that also came to us from our Isager distributors.

Come by the shop to see even more new patterns for Isager yarns, and to play the Isager/Shibui color combination game that I’ve come to love. See you there!

Gradient colorways.

Posted by Julia on December 8, 2013

We recently acquired a few new colors in Shibui Silk Cloud, one of our newest yarns. Silk Cloud is a shimmering, fuzzy blend of mohair and silk, one that has quickly made its way onto Anne’s needles as well as my own. Already low on a few popular colors, we placed an order with Shibui a few weeks ago and were unable to resist a couple of new hues in Silk Cloud.

When presented with piles of yarn, my first impulse is always to group colors into interesting pairings or trios, thinking, “How could I combine these in a garment?” Unpacking the new colors in Silk Cloud, I immediately thought of the “Gradient” cowl, a free pattern from Shibui.

In the spirit of the Shibui Mix concept, which encourages the combining of Shibui yarns two or three strands at a time, “Gradient” is worked with three strands of Silk Cloud held together. Periodically, one of those three strands is switched out for a different color, which makes a gentle transition from one color to the next.

“Gradient” calls for four shades of Silk Cloud, so immediately I started putting foursomes together, shuffling all our available colors this way and that until I found combinations that pleased me.

Inspired to make a “Gradient” cowl of your own? I can’t wait to see what other color combinations you creative knitters will come up with. Look for the “Gradient” pattern on Shibui’s website, where you can download it for free, and look for Shibui Silk Cloud at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop in the lace weight section. See you there!

Cliff Hat.

Posted by Julia on December 4, 2013

Speaking of Shibui, I recently finished a new shop sample with Shibui Pebble: the Cliff Hat.

The Cliff Hat is a slouchy colorwork beanie, a free pattern from Shibui. I used the colors called for in the pattern, colors I might never have thought to put together myself, but which make a beautiful gradient in this easy-to-memorize colorwork motif.

The hat is knit with two strands of Pebble held together throughout, which makes a nice cohesive fabric, soft enough to slouch a bit, but sturdy enough to feel substantial and warm on the head. The two-stranded Pebble swatch I’d knit for the shop is lofty and open by comparison, proof that yarns can be happy at many different gauges; it all depends on what kind of fabric you’re hoping to create.

Come by the shop to see this new Shibui sample, and select colors for a Cliff Hat of your own!